Barrie was pinned by Grant who appeared to be unconscious. He heard pandemonium outside. Through the holes blown in the car he saw Confederates charging by on horseback. Some horses carried two men while others carried lone riders with drawn sabers or brandished pistols. This time the Confederates chased Barrie’s men outside the train away from the tracks. Barrie heard a loud “Eeeeee--yaaaaaaahh---yip---yip---yay-yo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” as the Confederates galloped past. He heard one Confederate shout, “We did it again, Stoneballs, hell if we didn’t!”
Grant came to his senses and groggily pulled himself off Barrie. He had a huge welt across his head where one of the strange projectiles had grazed him.
“Son of a bitch!” said Grant, rubbing his throbbing head. He took the hipflask of whiskey out of his coat pocket and threw it out a hole in the side of the car. “I’ve got to stop drinking this rotgut. It kicks like a mule!”
19
Columbus Ohio, October 5, 1861
Brigadier General of Volunteers Ormsby Mitchel poured Cump Sherman a wine aperitif at his Camp Dennison headquarters. He raised his glass to toast Cump’s arrival.
“Cheers, from one West Pointer to another.”
“War brings us West Pointers back together in service of our country,” replied Cump. “When our country calls us to war, we always return to the profession of arms.”
“I’ve been away from the service for many years,” said Mitchel, stirring his glass. “But West Point has left its indelible mark on me. It has made me a success in everything I’ve done.”
“Your fame as an astronomer is known around the world. I’m sorry the war has called you away from its pursuit.”
Cump observed that Mitchel looked to be the very incarnation of what he thought an astronomy professor should look like. Small-bodied, but perfectly proportioned, with thick hair, greying slightly, to show his fifty years. Yet his small frame seemed to radiate energy. He had spent his years out of the service engineering railroads and promoting astronomical research. He had funded the creation of one of the world’s largest telescopes at his Cincinnati observatory. He had become one of the most popular scientific lecturers in the country. Ormsby Mitchel felt that Man could not know Himself fully until he understood the Cosmos and thereby understood his own place in its design.
“For a West Pointer, the country must always come first,” answered Mitchel.
“I suppose that depends on what country you mean,” said Sherman, sipping the wine. “Most West Pointers are either fighting for the Confederate Union or they have stayed neutral. I tried to stay neutral too. I was Commandant of the Louisiana Military Institute when the war started. I had more friends in the Confederate Union than in the Free States. I understood that the Northern Abolitionists have done at least as much as the Southern Fire eaters to break up the Union. So I didn’t want to fight against either Ohio or the Confederate Union.”
“What did make you decide to commit to our War for Free State independence?”
“My brother persuaded me to come back to Ohio to make my decision. While I was here John invited me to Lincoln’s inaugural. His words were convincing. He said them again at his Gettysburg Address, and again at the Columbus rally.”
“What was it he said that convinced you?”
“That we, the Free States, are the true inheritors of the United States. Maybe that’s an overstatement, because the Southerners also did their part to create the Union. But I do agree with Mr. Lincoln that the United States is destined to become a free country in its entirety. The Confederate Union will one day free its slaves. When it does I believe the old Union of all the states will come back together again.”
“That’s the way I see it too,” said Mitchel. “The country has to move forward into the new century, not remain tethered to the one that is passing. The Twentieth Century is less than forty years away. That will be a century of discovery and progress even grander than what we’ve seen in our lifetimes. Science and industry will make us fantastically wealthy through the discovery of knowledge and its application to industry, commerce, and agriculture. Slavery is a system of labor exploitation based on ignorance and backwardness. It belongs to the 18th Century, not the 20th.”
Mitchel swirled his wineglass. “I don’t mean to say that the Southerners are ignorant or indifferent to science. Far from it, they were generous in writing checks to fund my observatory. But I do think that their insistence upon retaining slavery will distract us from the pursuit of progress. They want to bring slavery into the West. They want to acquire Mexico and the Caribbean. That will embroil us in wars of conquest and very likely lead us into conflict with the powers of Europe. Slavery brings domestic violence and wars of foreign conquest. Let us be done with it! Let us turn our minds toward the pursuit of things that uplift Man instead of oppressing him. Let us pursue the arts and sciences that expand men’s minds and brings us the true wealth that comes from knowledge, not the false wealth that comes when some men exploit the labor of others!”
“I could not have said it any better,” said Cump. “Your capacity to distill complex subjects into their most basic contents of right and wrong matches President Lincoln’s.”
Mitchel let out a long sigh. “We must separate ourselves from the Confederate Union before their dependence upon slavery corrupts us too. The Slave States have plenty of friends up here. You know that Douglas and Davis came within eight thousand votes of winning this state. The Democrats elected their candidate for governor in the state election last October. It was only the late campaigning by Republicans that swung the state our way by a smidgen in November.”
Mitchel threw up his arms in exasperation. “Too many people here don’t give a fig about slavery. If we don’t get these people away from the corrupting influence of the slave powers then we’ll be fighting to keep slavery from getting a foothold up here.”
Sherman held up his glass and smelled the aroma. “Given the closeness of the vote I’m surprised the Partisan War wasn’t any more severe here than it was. Cincinnati was the only place I’ve heard of that suffered the kind of fighting they had in the other Lower North States.”
“I was in Cincinnati during the Partisan War,” replied Mitchel, his expression pained. “I thought the rioters were going to burn the whole town down. Then Fremont brought in the field artillery. He placed it up on the hills next to my observatory. He blasted what was left of the business district to smithereens.” Mitchel shook his head. “Barbaric!”
“I know,” answered Cump. “I’m glad my brother and I decided to rent a law office there before I took the assignment in Louisiana. We were thinking of buying the building. Would have been a total loss if we had. Hope you didn’t lose any of your property, or any of your life’s work at the observatory.”
“Thankfully not. The part of the city that was demolished was in the commercial district. A lot of the businesses and all the taverns and whorehouses by the piers were burned by Douglas men or flattened by Fremont’s artillery. We were fortunate that the Confederates didn’t try to retake the city with an army corps like they did St. Louis. They placed artillery up on the hills around Covington, but mercifully restrained themselves from opening fire. Guess they figured that Fremont was doing enough damage on his own.”
“Nobody ever accused Fremont of being subtle,” replied Cump. “I suppose he decided to put down the rioting as quickly as he could. At least he succeeded in flushing the Douglas men out of there before they had time to organize anywhere else.”